Amino Acids And Sex Drive

[farside44]

What effect do high concentrations of certain amino acids (in my case glutamine, glycine, and asparagine) have on sex drive and libido? I have read very mixed things and was hoping for some guidance from you people.

My cardinal problem is a lack of sex drive. No morning wood, takes to long to cum, weak erections.

Most recently I had an amino acids blood test (12 hour fast and no supplements for a few weeks before hand). All my amino acids were roughly mid range except for:

>GLUTAMINE: 778 [normal: 428-747 umol/L]

>GLYCINE: 340 [normal: 122-322 umol/L]

>ASPARAGINE: 68 [normal: 31-64 umol/L]

previous to this blood test I've had lots of others. In no particular order I've had thyroid panel, androgen panel, estrogen panel, minerals (zinc, copper, calcium, etc.), vitamin D, and many other things tested. My thyroid tests showed me to be slightly hypothyroid. I brought my thyroid numbers to mid range and felt no sexual improvment. My estrogens were upper mid range, but my attempts to address this (Zin, Vitamin E, low fat diet) made no difference in sexual ability.



My question to the great minds of Raypeat: would normalizing these amino acid values help my sex drive?



Old thread for background:
Does Lowering Estrogen Actually Help Male Sexual Function?

 

[olive]

You’re barely out of range and I doubt balancing those aminos will have a real tangible effect on your libido

What are your DHT levels? Testosterone? Prolactin?

Libido is mostly mediated through hormonal pathways, focus on those

 

[Terma]

Not really, just try a few grams L-histidine base

 

[olive]

Not really, just try a few grams L-histidine base

Try a milligram of methyltrienolone

 

[Jon]

@farside44 if anything, too much protein will harm libido by raising cortisol and possibly worsening your testosterone:cortisol ratio. It’s all about testosterone man, the rest of the androgens are not highly involved in bolstering libido. First places I would assess are stress (both physical and mental along with chronic and acute levels), nutrition, and rest.

 

[farside44]

>Estrogen total serum: 160 [normal: 30-190 pg/ml]

>Estradiol: 35 [normal: <39 pg/ml]

>DHT: 23 [normal: 16-79 ng/ml]

>Testosterone: 620 [normal: 260-930]

>Prolactin is mid range

Could the aformentioned amino acid values have anything to do with high estrogen and low DHT?

 

[Spondive]

Not really, just try a few grams L-histidine base

Why try this?

 

[Jon]

>Estrogen total serum: 160 [normal: 30-190 pg/ml]

>Estradiol: 35 [normal: <39 pg/ml]

>DHT: 23 [normal: 16-79 ng/ml]

>Testosterone: 620 [normal: 260-930]

>Prolactin is mid range

Could the aformentioned amino acid values have anything to do with high estrogen and low DHT?

Don’t think so. What’s your lifestyle like? Are you sedentary? Active? Some other details would be good. Your estrogen is on the higher side of normal but your test isn’t too bad. This makes me wonder what else you’re doing that could interfere with libido.

 

[Kunstruct]

Glycine supplementation could increase 5AR (some claims that powerfully up-regulates it), so DHT could be on that way, yet some people report lowering of libido or loss of libido and even morning wood loss from Glycine due to some of it's other effects on neurotransmitters for example. I don't think I have seen so far someone actually taking Glycine and doing some blood Glycine levels of DHT levels to see a before and after.

Not sure about the glutamine being high if it helps with libido.

Do you drink green tea or mint tea? Consume rosemary?

 

[Jon]

Glycine supplementation could increase 5AR (some claims that powerfully up-regulates it), so DHT could be on that way, yet some people report lowering of libido or loss of libido and even morning wood loss from Glycine due to some of it's other effects on neurotransmitters for example. I don't think I have seen so far someone actually taking Glycine and doing some blood Glycine levels of DHT levels to see a before and after.

Not sure about the glutamine being high if it helps with libido.

Do you drink green tea or mint tea? Consume rosemary?

Because dht and test are recieved by many of the sameAR’s, with dht’s higher potency it will effectively block reception of Test. This is one of those reasons men with high dht (and imo the genes for hair loss) will grow heavy beards and body hair, but end up with prostate trouble and hair loss. Dht is so high it’s actually blocking test from AR uptake. Dht is basically a stress hormone meant to increase NO production and enhance blood flow, hence why we see spikes in dht following intense exercise especially that which induced intermittent hypoxia (sprints and tabata or windgates).

Lower dht may just be a sign of higher levels of aromatization BUT think in op’s case there’s something else going on with lifestyle that’s throwing I’m outta whack. It’s amazingly easy to disrupt nocturnal tumescensce, and in my experience it’s usually stress induced (high anxiety, too much physical activity, not eating enough).

 

[farside44]

More background info:

>23 years old, puberty at 15

>Erectile dysfunction hasn't changed at all in this time

>No morning wood, weak erections, takes too long to cum

>6'1", 170 lbs, male, puffy nipples, little body hair/facial hair

It's always been this way. Now days I work out 3 or 4 times a week (running and lifting). I have a 9-6 job and I get about eight hours of sleep. Back in college my sleep was more erratic, but I was still getting plenty most nights. Back in high-school I was working out six days a week during the track and cross country season and I was getting maybe six hours of sleep during week days. Over these past eight years, with all the changes in working out, stress levels, sleep levels, and general lifestyle changes, I have not felt any significant changes in my sexual functioning.

One interesting tid-bit is that I never (physically) enjoyed alcohol or other drugs. When I drink I don't feel any particular good feelings, mainly I just feel kind of spaced out and more impulsive I guess. I still drank a decent amount during college for social reasons. I felt the same way about tobacco too. Cigarettes I couldn't even feel. If I doubled packed lips with chewing tobacco I would feel a head rush and dizziness for five or so minutes and afterwords I would feel nauseous. Perhaps there's a problem with my limbic system? Perhaps whatever mechanism it is that makes me unable to enjoy drugs also makes me unable to enjoy sex?

 

[Kunstruct]

@Jon
So far I have read that this seems to happen to people like bodybuilders have issue with libido and erections, where we can read about 300 ng/ml or even 400 ng/ml rarely. It is said that DHT at high levels is HTPA suppressive. Now I do not know what to said about the other bodybuilders that take same drugs and don't get the issues and they can only talk about erections over erections for months, what exactly is happening with those?
We have less info about the regular folk about DHT mainly because as far as I can see it is not being tested in general like for example cortisol or estradiol regularly is.

I used to have high DHT without taking any supplement at all, but my beard does not have high density, nor I have much body hair, which is strange.

What I sort of trying to reach somehow is that even he is concerned about high Glycine levels in blood , the DHT is straight up low in blood results even if Glycine is high in blood. So in his case high Glycine blood levels seems do to nothing for DHT, for the little we know, there cam be many other blockers consumed.
Glycine being cause of libido loss might not be do to huge DHT production overnight but rather due it's claimed powerfully cortisol reduction and for the fact it is used by a lot of inhibitory synapses.
But again high Glycine and low DHT are what results show.

 

[Kunstruct]

I do not intend to be intrusive, but what does "takes too long to cum" mean?

 

[farside44]

It takes over ten minutes of stimulation to ejaculate. If I stop during this time my boner will go away fairly quickly. My penis doesn't feel particularly good till I'm maybe 30 seconds away from ejaculating. I cannot cum from sex either with or without a condom. Nofap just made my penis feel more numb and unresponsive. I've gone to the Mayo clinic and had it looked at. There's no blood flow, vascular, or mechanical issues with my penis. I doubt there's nerve damage, because I've never been hit hard in the groin/penis and I have never felt any pain in my penis. And (as described in my old thread) I felt a brief period of decent functioning after I started levothyroxine (I could not recreate it after changing around dosages/brands/etc.) so I know my body is capable of functioning correctly.

All that leaves is either hormonal or neuro-transmitter dysfunction as the root cause.

 

[Jon]

More background info:

>23 years old, puberty at 15

>Erectile dysfunction hasn't changed at all in this time

>No morning wood, weak erections, takes too long to cum

>6'1", 170 lbs, male, puffy nipples, little body hair/facial hair

It's always been this way. Now days I work out 3 or 4 times a week (running and lifting). I have a 9-6 job and I get about eight hours of sleep. Back in college my sleep was more erratic, but I was still getting plenty most nights. Back in high-school I was working out six days a week during the track and cross country season and I was getting maybe six hours of sleep during week days. Over these past eight years, with all the changes in working out, stress levels, sleep levels, and general lifestyle changes, I have not felt any significant changes in my sexual functioning.

One interesting tid-bit is that I never (physically) enjoyed alcohol or other drugs. When I drink I don't feel any particular good feelings, mainly I just feel kind of spaced out and more impulsive I guess. I still drank a decent amount during college for social reasons. I felt the same way about tobacco too. Cigarettes I couldn't even feel. If I doubled packed lips with chewing tobacco I would feel a head rush and dizziness for five or so minutes and afterwords I would feel nauseous. Perhaps there's a problem with my limbic system? Perhaps whatever mechanism it is that makes me unable to enjoy drugs also makes me unable to enjoy sex?

Dude you’re over stressed. I’m sure that as a young kid you got plenty of morning wood but around the time you started training (running especially!) you began to lose it. Most of us at a young age are so subliminal about the daily going ons in our health that we usually fail to notice subtle changes like not waking up with a boner.

My advice is you need to stop training all together for at least 2 weeks. This time off should also be spent eating to satisfaction. This should reduce the Repeated Bout Effect to nil and reduce your stress hormone concentrations enough to prevent interference of your androgen reception. Every time I’ve suggested this to people with similar circumstances to yours, they feel worse during the first 4-5 days, better after a week, constant improvement during the entire 2nd week, and like a new person after the full 2 week layoff. You’re exhibiting classic signs of SNS dominance, which signifies over exertion of the cns. You gotta chill man, I’ll bet you a bottle of kuinone this helps

@Jon
So far I have read that this seems to happen to people like bodybuilders have issue with libido and erections, where we can read about 300 ng/ml or even 400 ng/ml rarely. It is said that DHT at high levels is HTPA suppressive. Now I do not know what to said about the other bodybuilders that take same drugs and don't get the issues and they can only talk about erections over erections for months, what exactly is happening with those?
We have less info about the regular folk about DHT mainly because as far as I can see it is not being tested in general like for example cortisol or estradiol regularly is.

I used to have high DHT without taking any supplement at all, but my beard does not have high density, nor I have much body hair, which is strange.

What I sort of trying to reach somehow is that even he is concerned about high Glycine levels in blood , the DHT is straight up low in blood results even if Glycine is high in blood. So in his case high Glycine blood levels seems do to nothing for DHT, for the little we know, there cam be many other blockers consumed.
Glycine being cause of libido loss might not be do to huge DHT production overnight but rather due it's claimed powerfully cortisol reduction and for the fact it is used by a lot of inhibitory synapses.
But again high Glycine and low DHT are what results show.

Not all bodybuilders are on drugs (I’m certainly not lol) and I’ve experienced all the same things happening to OP. Like I alluded to earlier; hair loss or hair growth is also born of hereditary gene expression, and imo one of the few areas of health that is less epigenetic. Extended time off, eating plenty, and learning better fatigue management strategies were the key to reversing all this. I regained my nocturnal tumescensce after not having it for 5 years if that means anything.

 

[Kunstruct]

I’ll bet you a bottle of kuinone this helps

That is some good bet you started there with the OP.

I regained my nocturnal tumescensce after not having it for 5 years if that means anything.

Yeah that means a lot actually.

 

[Kunstruct]

It takes over ten minutes of stimulation to ejaculate.

I cannot cum from sex either with or without a condom. /QUOTE]


If I understand correctly, it takes over 10 minutes of stimulation to ejaculate by masturbating? Because otherwise I do not quite understand the second line where you cannot at all, that implies that only with a partner you cannot ejaculate at all?

 

[Jon]

That is some good bet you started there with the OP.

Yeah that means a lot actually.

Haha I’m relatively confident this will help. I can explain why:

-His dht is on the lower side of NORMAL (meant for increasing NO and Bloodflow among other things neurological)

-His estradiol is on the higher side of NORMAL (estrogen rises as inflammation rises, as do other stress hormones like cortisol, serotonin, etc)

-His Test is on the HIGHER side of MID RANGE NORMAL (responsible for 95% of all the good stuff we as men want; sex drive, confidence, ease of lean mass gains, healthy skin, blah blah blah)

-This all tells me along with finally understand his life style is that his estrogen is high due to his incessant physical activity (which is much too taxing especially the running). The estrogen is high because of constant inflammation, estrogen increases edema to protect damaged tissues from further damage.

-His dht is lower because the activity is constant and so inflammation is constant and the body doesn’t have a chance to increase dht because of the estrogen high in serum. The over activity is likely causing a hightened aromatization and so dht is low because Test is being converted to estrogen rather than dht to keep inflammation high to protect from damage. With some time off the aromatization would likely stop and dht would rise to finally enhance NO and subsequently increase blood flow to damaged tissues (this includes nerves).

-his Test is on the higher side of mid range. This tells me he makes plenty of test and his endocrine system is functioning as it should. This also tells me it’s not a synthesis issue but a RECEPTION issue. Reception issues happen for two different reasons; either there is something blocking ARs from uptaking androgens OR AR density is low and thus cannot uptake as much androgen as would be optimal. I believe OP is the former and not the latter because when AR density is low, so too is androgen production which is obviously not his problem.

 

[farside44]

Yes that's correct. Usually the first few minutes when I masturbate my **** is pretty bendy (weak erection). With masturbation I'm pulling rope, but with sex I'm pushing rope. Sometimes with sex I am 90+% hard either by luck or by kegeling. On those occasions my **** just gets gradually softer until I'm pushing rope. Obviously the reason I can ejaculate from jerking off is because it offers more rapid/rough stimulation than a vagina. However, I do not believe a habituation of my penis to my hand is the cause of my sex problems. I didn't start jerking off until I was almost sixteen. So after hitting puberty at or before 15 (15 is just an estimate, I could have begun it at 14 or 13, it came on very gradually) I went about a year before I first ejaculated. No wet dreams (i have never had one), no random erections, no morning erections in that time frame. And even when I first began to masturbate, I had the problems mentioned above.

 

[Jon]

Yes that's correct. Usually the first few minutes when I masturbate my **** is pretty bendy (weak erection). With masturbation I'm pulling rope, but with sex I'm pushing rope. Sometimes with sex I am 90+% hard either by luck or by kegeling. On those occasions my **** just gets gradually softer until I'm pushing rope. Obviously the reason I can ejaculate from jerking off is because it offers more rapid/rough stimulation than a vagina. However, I do not believe a habituation of my penis to my hand is the cause of my sex problems. I didn't start jerking off until I was almost sixteen. So after hitting puberty at or before 15 (15 is just an estimate, I could have begun it at 14 or 13, it came on very gradually) I went about a year before I first ejaculated. No wet dreams (i have never had one), no random erections, no morning erections in that time frame. And even when I first began to masturbate, I had the problems mentioned above.

Like I said man, you have been interfering with your androgen function since a very young age.